A Chatty Man

March 25th. 2107 The highlight of my week from a literary point of view was the interview I had with Debbi Mack, a New York Times best-selling author, last night. We set this up about two months ago. I learned a little more about Google hangouts when Debbie sent out the invite; took a little while to get going. We chatted for about 35 minutes, which will be edited to about 30 minutes for the YouTube channel. She said some very positive things about my book The Devil’s Trinity, which she is currently reading, but that wasn’t the point of the interview. We talked about my latest release, Where the Wicked Dwell, and why I decided to go with the character, Marcus Blake, who appeared in A Covert War. She could have asked me anything because I would have rattled on until she decided I’d said enough. Anyway, I tried to explain my reasons for re-introducing Marcus Blake, which were purely mercenary: to sell more books. I think it’s a truism that authors who write series novels will sell more books than someone like me who writes stand-alone books. I did say, however, that by going down this route, I might be letting my standards drop simply because I am being propelled along a route I really don’t want to go. I believe that writing with a single character doesn’t let the writer wander too far away from a channelled path. No doubt there will be writers who disagree with me, but because my books are inspired by world or local events, I find the task of writing to ‘order’ as it were, is rather like being in a straight-jacket, and it saps inspiration. But hey, it sells books! I’m finding that now because I have resurrected Conor Lenihan from my thriller, The Eagle’s Covenant. This was in response to comments I’ve received about wanting to see this guy again: something I’d never planned to do. So I’m tackling the problem of how I cast this character in a completely new role and avoid too many similarities between that and what went before. But where will the inspiration come from? What I am considering is actually making this a sequel to the previous book, beginning where that one ended, so that the two books could be seen as one complete story. If I did that, I could publish the two as one book. It’s an interesting thought. I’m also taking advantage if Ingram Spark’s free promotion and having Where the Wicked Dwell published in hardback. I did this with A Dangerous Game last year. It looks good against my other hardback titles, and Wicked will make a nice addition to the bookshelf. I’ve had no feedback from the cross-promotions I did last week. I haven’t seen any significant change in the sales of my books, although I am giving away several copies of my latest book every day, and adding about ten subscribers a day to my growing list with Mailchimp. I’ve seen some comments from authors on a particular Facebook group complaining about readers not buying their books, even when they are on sale for $0.99. They say the free copies are being downloaded, but no-one is buying. One author suggested it’s our own fault for giving books away. There are so many free books available now on Amazon, so what’s the point of buying? I’m not sure if that’s true, but I do believe it is necessary to establish yourself as a reliable writer, and hope that readers will be prepared to part with their money to buy your books, and you can only do that by attracting them to your product with giveaways in the beginning. I hope so. Wish me luck!

Waking up to the good news and the not so good news

March 18th. 2017 It’s my birthday today, and the week has ended on a promising note, but also with a cautionary reminder about the cross-promotions I’m involved in. My social media workload went up, not by a dramatic amount, but enough to take up much of my free time, which meant nothing added to my WIP. The promising note I mentioned is the small rise in my book sales, and the addition of subscribers being added to my list every day. Oh, and the birthday cards, phone calls and my wife taking me out to lunch. The cautionary note was a major blunder on my part when I forgot I had a limited number of free downloads with Instafreebie for my promoted book. It meant that the authors I promoted were asking their subscribers to download my book which was no longer available. Naturally I went back on Instafreebie and opened the book to unlimited downloads. I thought I had checked everything: all the links, my spelling, no typos etc., then sat back and expected it to all happen. The link is right now. If you haven’t looked at my latest thriller, why not download the free book? https://www.instafreebie.com/free/O89QV. My author group, Chindi (www.chindi-authors.co.uk) have come up with a scheme to distribute free paperbacks around the area. It’s an idea picked up from something that’s happening in London (and maybe elsewhere?). We’ll leave a book somewhere — bus station, park bench, café, pub — but the books will have a small leaflet inside asking the finder to read it and then pass it on to someone else. We may not make a fortune by giving away our paperbacks, but it’s another form of promotion and marketing. I received the paperback copy of Where the Wicked Dwell from Ingram Spark earlier in the week. There’s nothing wrong with it other than I could probably have tweaked it to improve it, but the background colour is not as good as the Photoshop jpeg I uploaded. I’ve uploaded the amended files to CreateSpace and am now waiting to be told it’s available on Amazon. If I’m happy with it, I’ll use the files to take advantage of Ingram Spark’s free offer to publish the book in hardback. I did this with A Dangerous Game last year. It means having all my books on the shelf in hardback. Last week I said I was happy with my WIP, maybe with one or two reservations, but now I’m beginning to doubt my choice of new novel. I could press ahead and bang out a thriller, but I would fall short of my own standards, I think. Mind you, I do tend to use the keyword “Pulp Fiction” in my publishing details, so maybe I am lowering my standards. The two writers I’m promoting this week are Kristin Helling and Scott Michaels. Their promotion links are http://www.kristinhelling.com/free-book (Kristin), and https://scottmichaelsauthor.com/uthg-promo (Scott Michaels). Why not have a look? Next week I’m being interviewed live by Debbie Mack, a New York Times best-selling author. Hopefully some of her stardust will rub off on me. Wish me luck!

Cut to the Chase

March 11th. 2017 They say there are two things certain in life: death and taxes. There’s something else too: when you’re an indie writer, whatever you’ve tried with regard to promotion and marketing, it’s been done before by most of the others, and all with the same results — it inevitably ends up back at the drawing board. I read a post from an author during the week about her attempts at whatever is ‘flavour of the month’. I found myself reading, nodding my head and smiling. Yes, I’ve been there, done that, same result, move on to the next best thing and finally back to the drawing board. So what’s the secret? Write more books? Nope; an author acquaintance of mine has her sole, fiction book up in the top 5000 on Amazon, and in the top ten in other categories. So what’s her secret? P&M: promotion and marketing — at least, having the skill and knowing where and how to pitch. That means more books is not the answer. So what is? This is where I say that if I knew that, I would be a best-selling author. Undaunted though, I press on, ignoring all the sales talk from other authors who will sell you the ideal package to boost your sales. It’s tempting, but there is only so much money in the pot to spend on P&M. I am making some progress and like to think I will build my sales to a healthy level while adding more titles to my bookshelf. This month I will be sending out emails to my subscribers and other platforms with details of the cross promotion I’m running. With luck those authors will encourage their subs to have a look at my books, and maybe I’ll see an increase in my sales. But that isn’t the whole story; selling books is fine, but the reality really, is to establish yourself firmly as a trustworthy writer who turns out books that are worth buying and reading. That’s what I want: to be known as the kind of writer people will recommend to others because of the quality of my work. Which brings me on to book jackets. Who said, ‘Never judge a book by its cover’? Isn’t that a mantra that underpins a lot of what characterises the choices we make? But we are being told my so many experts that the book jacket is what really sells the book. I think that’s tosh. I’ve seen covers I wouldn’t have as one of mine, and I’ve no doubt there are people out there who might say the same about my covers. But if I can establish myself within the world of our readers, then the book jacket is secondary; it’s what’s between the covers that count. I’ve reached the 5000 word count in my latest WIP. I actually like what I have written, with one or two minor reservations. But the next step, the point at which the story begins to take off, is eluding me at the moment. Ideas pop into my head and fall out just as quickly. Hopefully one will lodge firmly in my brain and give me something to get my teeth into. I actually read up a couple of pieces of advice about creating the novel recently. After a while I realised I’d been doing this since the year dot, ten books published and some very good reviews. If I didn’t know how to write a story, then what was I doing seeking advice? I shall fall back on the old, failsafe advice from some of the old writers like Hemingway and Fleming: go with your instincts and write the story. F.Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) had this said about his best-selling novel, This Side of Paradise: “one of the most illiterate books of any merit ever published…full of English words misused with the most reckless abandon.” (literary critic Edmund Wilson). So I’ll go with my instincts and write. Wish me luck!

Mind boggling

March 4th. 2017 A pretty full week for me one way or another: most of it consumed by tackling PC problems, uploading files and generally scratching my head when I lose my way. My book sales have progressed at a reasonable pace, but nowhere near where I would like them to be (naturally); however, I believe I can see the results of becoming more involved with other authors and giving a few books away. I have been exchanging emails with Ingram Spark as I struggled to understand exactly what was wrong with the files I uploaded for the paperback edition of my latest thriller, Where the Wicked Dwell. The rep was very patient and helped me through the process. Bearing in mind I have published four books with Ingram Spark, including a hardback, I began to wonder if I’d lost it completely. However, the last email I received was to say that it looked as though the files had been accepted and I would soon receive notification to that effect. I live in hopes. I have been doing some promotion work for myself and others, including Paula Wynne (http://www.bookhub.online) with whom I agreed to work in exchange for Gold membership with Bookhub. It looks to be bearing fruit already with a few names being added to my subs list. I also picked up the pen and added a few more words to my latest book. I’m still not sure where I’ll be going with it, but writing is better than not writing. The problem is that this is a sequel to The Eagle’s Covenant. It isn’t something I planned to do, but have had my ear chewed, particularly by my son John, about resurrecting Conor Lenihan, the main character in that novel. For those of you who have read the book, you will understand what my dilemma is. But hey, I’m a writer of fiction, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Should it? On the subject of PC problems, it wasn’t my PC that was playing up, but the TP link between my Router and the PC. Before finding out what the fault was, I tried everything until my wife suggested I swop the plug-in links. I did this and it worked. Ha! Woman’s logic. Perhaps I should ask her to deal with my file upload problems. My writers group, CHINDI, have been updating their website, choosing a new logo and generally trying to make the group more inclusive and expansive. We have a virtual meeting on Monday evening in place of our usual monthly gathering at a pub in Chichester. We also have a lot to offer other writers at http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk. Sometime next week, I will be preparing something for the cross promotion I’m running for three other writers. I have an idea what I’ll prepare for myself, but I haven’t a clue what to expect from the others. They might even put me to shame with the quality of their promotion piece, but then I might be able to learn something from them. Wish me luck!